Derivs - People and Markets

Martyn Harrison, a director in fx options trading at Crédit Agricole CIB in London, has left the firm, less than six months after joining.

Japanese banks are looking for a foreign bank to act as a market maker of property derivatives in order to help kick start the nascent business to life, hoping an experienced player will help blaze a trail for them

The European Parliament’s influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee this morning backed a rule to require euro denominated derivatives referencing an E.U.-based underlying, that an E.U. financial institution is counterparty to, to be cleared and reported to a European-based clearing house and trade repository.

Vincent Van Pelt, global head of equity derivatives at Standard Chartered is taking a one-year sabbatical, according to people made aware of the situation.

Standard Chartered has hired Robert Waugh to head up its pensions and insurance asset liability management business out of Hong Kong.

Leith Assouad, managing director and head of index flow trading at Citigroup in London, left last week.

Interdealer broker Tullet Prebon has shut its Asia Pacific property derivatives desk in Singapore.

Credit Suisse is making a concerted push to boost sales in its China fixed income derivatives team, hoping to target sales in longer dated fx transactions, an area which lacks volume and liquidity.

If the U.S. financial reform legislation successfully pushes many over-the-counter derivatives onto exchanges, banks and dealers could see a tax break on those deals of up to 12%, lawyers say.

Sharon Bowles, chair of the European Parliament’s influential Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, told Derivatives Week that E.U. politicians will propose a 25% cap on bank ownership stakes in clearing houses, rather than a complete ban.

Foreign banks in China are scoping setting up licensed subsidiaries, as opposed to branch offices, because they think regulators are going to let those subsidiaries get more active in onshore trading.

Hedge funds have been rushing to buy one-week put options on the euro against the U.S. dollar over the last few days to mitigate losses arising from a slew of three to six-month one touch options expiring Monday that traders expect to finish out-of-the-money.